The Lyttelton Hart-Davis letters: a selection: correspondence of George Lyttelton and Rupert Hart-Davis 1955-1962 - Hardcover

Lyttelton, George / Hart-Davis, Rupert / Hudson, Roger (Editor). The Lyttelton Hart-Davis Letters: A Selection. Correspondence of George Lyttelton and Rupert Hart-Davis 1955-1962. London, John Murray, 2001. 14.5 cm x 22.5 cm. XV, 368 pages. Original hardcover with dustjacket in protective Mylar. Excellent condition with only very minor signs of external wear. Loosely inserted preower's notes and pencil markings on several pages. Otherwise clean inside with solid binding. Includes the following: Introduction by Roger Hudson / Prologue by Rupert Hart-Davis / The Letters 1955 / 1956 / 1957 / 1958 / 1959 / 1960 / 1961 / 1962 / Index. George Lyttelton taught at Eton, where Rupert Hart-Davis, later distinguished as publisher and man of letters, was one of his pupils. In retirement, Lyttelton complained at a dinner where Hart-Davis was present that he was bored, and that no one wrote to him. This celebrated correspondence was the result of that challenge. Roger Hudson, writer, editor and sometime publisher at John Murray, shepherded the original six volumes into print. (Publisher) The Lyttelton Hart-Davis letters were originally published in six volumes, and critics lavished praise on each of them. By the time the last had appeared in 1984, it was obvious that a not-so-minor classic had been born. They have been unavailable for some years, however, and the time is ripe to reintroduce the letters with this, the first selection from the 600 or more which were exchanged weekly in 'one of the most urbane, civilised and entertaining correspondences of our time' (Sunday Telegraph). A new generation can discover their 'compulsive readability' (Observer) as they cap each other's anecdotes and, as George Lyttelton says, 'take an intense delight in seeing the language perfectly handled'. Rupert Hart-Davis reports from the front line of the London literary battlefield, when not pursuing Wildean minutiae for his famous e..